White House aides say Shinseki on “probation”

posted at 8:01 am on May 29, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

The good news: The White House finally began to show a little leadership last night after nearly every vulnerable Democrat in Congress demanded Eric Shinseki’s resignation, following the release of the interim IG report on the VA scandal. The bad news? The Obama administration has chosen the Faber College model of leadership:

But he has reached the point where he doesn’t know if Shinseki will be able to fix the problems at the VA, White House aides said Wednesday.

When the president essentially put the VA secretary on probation last week, he said his red line in this situation would be evidence that the misconduct at Veterans Affairs had to be “systemic.”

The VA Inspector General’s report released Wednesday says the evidence is clear: there are “systemic patient safety issues and possible wrongful deaths.”

But while the IG report didn’t help Shinseki’s case, White House aides say the president’s still waiting to make a final decision until he has more information: a report from Shinseki himself due to the White House this week and one from Rob Nabors, the deputy chief of staff he put in charge of a separate review, which is due in June.

So, it’s safe to say that “systemic” was an Obama red line. Perhaps he’ll opt for double secret probation now that the IG has confirmed that fraud is systemic in Eric Shinseki’s VA. West Wing attorneys are already looking for that little-known codicil in the Obama administration charter (mildly NSFW):

By the way, the attempt to hide atrocious performance isn’t limited to VA clinics and hospitals, either. The House Veterans Affairs Committee held a rare evening hearing yesterday, and panel members got angry when VA officials failed to comply with document requests:

House members lashed out at Veterans Affairs officials Wednesday evening over a broadening VA medical scandal that has increasingly prompted calls for VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle criticized the Department of Veterans Affairs, aggressively cutting off the VA officials sent to testify and promising stepped-up oversight. The House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing, which began without opening statements for the three VA officials, stretched past 10 p.m. with a second round of questioning for members.

Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), the committee’s chairman, denounced the department for failing to comply with the committee’s request for all emails and documents about the alleged destruction of waiting lists at the VA’s Phoenix medical facility. …

The VA officials’ testimony did little to slow the criticism from lawmakers, including several Democrats. Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) asked each of the witnesses whether they felt personally responsible for the deaths of the veterans in Phoenix, and she asked Mooney at one point whether she would resign.

Members repeatedly took aim at the officials for referring questions to the VA’s general counsel, who was not at the hearing.

Why should Mooney resign? Her boss isn’t resigning, and no one’s firing her for poor performance … or anyone else, for that matter. Instead, everyone wants to form more study committees and put people on “probation” while vets wait four months to see a doctor, despite having increased the VA budget 78% in six budget cycles.

The question will be just how much longer Obama intends to let this fester without taking real executive action. Obama had the perfect set-up last week to move Shinseki out of the way and gain some political breathing room, but instead decided to double down on failure. Now, canning Shinseki will look weak rather than strong, but sticking with the status quo will look flat-out impotent. If the White House has any sense at all, Shinseki will be out by tomorrow evening at the latest (the classic Friday-afternoon news dump), or this afternoon.

Blowback

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Here, let me translate: “Listen, just lay low and keep your mouth shut until this blows over. The media is working to bury it or find something else to talk about. The heat should only last another week or so…”

Ha! John Vernon. I saw that pic and thought of “Dirty Harry”. He was in “The Outlaw Josey Wales”, as well. I think Obama is unwilling to fire anybody. He has nothing to fear from Republicans and he has the mainstream press on his side.

Here, let me translate: “Listen, just lay low and keep your mouth shut until this blows over. The media is working to bury it or find something else to talk about. The heat should only last another week or so…”

UnderstandingisPower on May 29, 2014 at 8:07 AM

Yep… there should be a brand new “phony scandal” coming along anytime now.///

Shinseki must have been wondering “Probation? WTF? Am I in 7th grade?”. I’ll bet he was prepared to be fired or to get teh One’s support, not this.

freedomfirst on May 29, 2014 at 8:12 AM

Well, given that his rat-eared boss just gave a speech that actually used the line “just because you have the best hammer in the world, you don’t treat every problem as a nail” I’d say that 7th grade is being generous. This administration is more akin of a Kinder-care preschool.

Obama made much of his “pen and phone” style of executive authority. Well, here he has a perfectly legal executive decision to make and it seems his pen is out of ink and his phone needs to be recharged.

I absolutely despise this Administration and everything they stand for. I despise the piece of garbage sitting in the oval office playing CinC while “His” troops as he likes to call them, fight all over the world, then come home to rot while awaiting care, because he doesn’t give two cents.

I also despise the woman who claims the moral high ground on how to feed my children. You are a failed lawyer, as is your husband. What gives you the right to tell me or my family how to raise children?

And more than anything, I despise the clueless voters who foisted this unqualified moron on the Country I fought for and my cousin gave his life for.

Obama fires no one because firing anyone is a blow to his gigantic ego. Firing anyone means taking responsibility for hiring the person in the first place. Firing anyone means admitting defeat on that one particular point. And being a small, petty man he would rather die than concede on the small points.

The question will be just how much longer Obama intends to let this fester without taking real executive action. Obama had the perfect set-up last week to move Shinseki out of the way and gain some political breathing room, but instead decided to double down on failure. Now, canning Shinseki will look weak rather than strong, but sticking with the status quo will look flat-out impotent. If the White House has any sense at all, Shinseki will be out by tomorrow evening at the latest (the classic Friday-afternoon news dump), or this afternoon.

It still boggles my mind that an inept community organizer who was promoted or cushioned by affirmative action could become president.

I have worked with terrible managers before. Thankfully, the private sector is efficient at weeding out most bad managers. Unfortunately, the public sector utilizes political correctness plus affirmative action when choosing who gets promoted.

Now our veterans are paying for these mistakes with their health and their lives.

I served four years in the Marine Corps (92-96). I hope that I never need assistance from the VA for any reason. I would rather die in a ditch then deal with the government if I can help it.

So say Shinseki gets canned today, tomorrow, next week. Then what?
Obama puts in someone else just as incompetent, whom we know less about than we did Shinseki. Then what? Focus is off the VA, off the vets who still aren’t getting help, Obama will say something like “this problem is systemic, it won’t be solved overnight”, people will lose interest, scandal will be over, and Congress can get back to business as usual, committee hearings till the end of time.
Seriously, which scandal in the past 6 years has been even remotely resolved? The best we can hope for is yet another scandal to help the low info’s start waking up to all these recent events and start putting 2 and 2 together.

And why haven’t vouchers for healthcare in the private sector already been passed out to the vets still waiting?

Obama had the perfect set-up last week to move Shinseki out of the way and gain some political breathing room, but instead decided to double down on failure.

That is the MO of Jugears. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can be given to the GOP for ammunition. It has to be seen as if O ‘mulls’ over all the evidence, especially the stuff the public isn’t privy to, and then he makes his decision. But not because people forced his hand, only because it was the right thing to do. He does it with appointments, illegals, healthcare, economy, budget…everything. Only he gains politically, no one else. He would rather see everyone suffer than reach across the aisle or compromise.

That is the MO of Jugears. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can be given to the GOP for ammunition. It has to be seen as if O ‘mulls’ over all the evidence, especially the stuff the public isn’t privy to, and then he makes his decision. But not because people forced his hand, only because it was the right thing to do. He does it with appointments, illegals, healthcare, economy, budget…everything. Only he gains politically, no one else. He would rather see everyone suffer than reach across the aisle or compromise.

And why haven’t vouchers for healthcare in the private sector already been passed out to the vets still waiting?

leftamark on May 29, 2014 at 9:18 AM

Because that would be an admission that government-run healthcare doesn’t work, and the Dims will never admit that.

It would destroy their chances for finally obtaining their holy grail of healthcare: single-payer.

They’re already trying to convince people that all the problems with Obamacare are the result of the private sector — i.e., the problems are caused by the greedy insurance companies, or by the fact that government doesn’t yet have enough control over the greedy doctors and private hospitals, etc. If we just had single payer, everything would work so much better.

But the VA scandal shows the public what happens when the government is the only payer: rationing, delays, lies, and avoidable deaths.

The Dims want to get this VA scandal off the public’s radar as quickly as possible. That’s why we keep being told there need to be more “studies” and “investigations.” It’s a stall tactic; tell the public that something is being done, while waiting for them to lose interest in the story.

F all democrats you filth are contemptable scum. It wasn’t enough to spit on vets you now have to kill them too? What kind of probation were the dead vets on? Seems like they got punished more than anyone in this filthy administration ever will.

So, his highness railed on the VA leading up to the 2008 election – he vowed to fix the VA. Apparently, the “fix” was some sort of incentive compensation program that encouraged the local executives at the facilities to fudge the records to maximize their bonuses. I would assume that Shinseki had a hand in this idea, and certainly approved the plan (probably without reading it!). And now we’re seeing the results – they f’d up another one. But Pelosi probably thinks it’s “beautiful”.

The question will be just how much longer Obama intends to let this fester without taking real executive action. Obama had the perfect set-up last week to move Shinseki out of the way and gain some political breathing room, but instead decided to double down on failure. Now, canning Shinseki will look weak rather than strong, but sticking with the status quo will look flat-out impotent. If the White House has any sense at all, Shinseki will be out by tomorrow evening at the latest (the classic Friday-afternoon news dump), or this afternoon.

Everyone should have seen this coming about three parsecs away.

The One always doubles down, like a compulsive gambler. I suspect mainly because up to now, somebody (mainly the MSM) has always been ready to give him support and justify his actions.

Personally, he sees any criticism of anyone working for him as a criticism of himself. This isn’t Truman’s “The Buck Stops Here”- in his mind, this is mortals challenging a God.

And he responds very much like Zeus in the Greek myths. Raging, threatening, and finally throwing thunderbolts.

He simply cannot tolerate anyone thinking of him as less perfect that he knows himself to be. If they do, they are not only wrong but evil into the bargain.

He also sees nothing wrong with the way VA is run for four reasons;

1. It afflicts ex-military personnel, and he hates the military like all progressives do in their loathsome little hearts.

2. It is reducing the “human infestation” of Holy Mother Gaia, and as a deep-eco fanatic himself he hates humanity, too.

3. He sees the VA as the “pilot model” for universal, government-run health care, which essentially has “population culling” pre-programmed into it. His main concern with VA now and UHC in the future is “streamlining” the “disposal process”. He doesn’t just want “population reduction”- he wants it to be efficient.

4. It’s how everything is run in Chicago, so he doesn’t see a problem to begin with.

I am sure the public reaction caught him totally by surprise. And the defection of Dems in Congress even more so.

But he’s pretty much recovered, by now. And will continue to do business in the same old way.

Because it has always worked so well for him, and apparently will continue to do so.

Obama can not allow a serious investigation here as the complicity of the White House may be revealed. Every “scandal” over his presidency has had ties back to them. Fortunately, for him, he has Eric Holder at his back.

Come on, people, you didn’t really expect anyone to be held accountable, did you?

Nothing is going to be done. Shinseki will only resign or be fired if it becomes embarrassing to people that count, and I note that certain members of Congress (that is, Democrats in safe elections) are defending him and his boss in spite of the horrendous nature of the scandal. That says that we peons out here matter less than that cigarette stub the local wino just snuffed out in the gutter. (sorry about the un-pc reference)

They don’t care about the veterans, as long as it doesn’t affect their worthless positions.

Given that, and the fact that any “reforms” by this administrations will accomplish exactly nothing to help our veterans, I hope they continue to defend the indefensible. If they do, there is a very small possibility that some low-info voter out there may realize that something matters more than his government check.

The only solution is competition. If Shinsecki wants to salvage his reputation, which up to now was pretty honorable, he should authorize vouchers NOW. He can take it out of the employee bonus funds if he has to.

If the folks at the VA centers are afraid for their jobs, they will step up. That has been my experience in my government job. If they don’t, the vets at least can have treatment.

V.A. — 100+ Military Vets Dead…No one ‘Fired’ but the Head of the Program / Agency gets ‘Probation’

Fast and Furious: 300+ dead, and counting – to include a US BPA…and No One is fired OR put on probation
– Atty General Holder perpetrated 3 Felony Counts of Perjury — Not JAILED, NOT Fired, no ‘probation’

Benghazi — 4 Americans dead, to include the 1st Ambassador murdered in over 30 years…No one Fired, No one Jailed, and No one on probation

IRS Scandal, AP Spying Scandal, NSA Spying Scandal…No one Fired, No one Jailed, No one on Probation.

**I have a theory…everyone knows Liberals / Obama hates the military…so it only makes sense that the only one in the Obama administration who is punished (even only if ‘on probation’) is the retired MILITARY GUY.